Lucas Di Grassi was the eventual winner of a thrilling Long Beach ePrix, after Renault e.dams Sebastien Buemi was involved in an accident.
Di Grassi passes Buemi in the championship standings but is only ahead by one point. The Brazilian also won the Mexico City ePrix three weeks before, but was disqualified after the race. Stephane Sarrazin finished in second, while Daniel Abt finishing third meant that both Abt Schaeffler drivers finished in the top three.
While the original pole sitter after qualifying was Antonio Felix da Costa, the Portuguese driver was disqualified after one of his tyres were found to be under the allowed pressure. He went from first to last on the grid, while Sam Bird for DS Virgin Racing moved to the top spot from second place.
Bird and Lucas di Grassi on the front row both got off to a great start, with not many position changes at the beginning. Everyone got through the first chicane without problems, while the two Renault e.dams teammates Sebastien Buemi and Nico Prost were side by side going into turn three on the first lap.
Nick Heidfeld tried to make a move going into turn five, but the German locked his brakes and had to keep the car out of the barriers. Championship leader Buemi did a better job on lap nine, when he dived into the inside of the final chicane to pass Daniel Abt.
Buemi tried the same move on Robin Frijns, but hit the back of the Belgian drivers car instead, turning Frijns around. Both cars were damaged, although the rear wing of Frijns’ car was in a much worse state, and both drivers had to come into the pits on lap 16. The Renault e.dams driver was also given a drive through penalty for causing the collision.
Not long before the pit stop window opened, it was announced that di Grassi, Heidfeld, and Jerome D’Ambrosio won the fan boost. Di Grassi then passed Bird for the lead of the race, both narrowly missing the nose cone piece still on the track from the earlier incident.
While no positions changed during the pit stops, Prost and the Renault e.dams team were found to have been too quick for their pit stop, and half way into their second stint were given a drive through penalty. With Prost in 14th and Buemi in last, it was a race to forget for the French team. Duval also was given a drive through penalty for using too much energy in the first stint.
Bird was pushing to keep up with di Grassi, and with cold brakes he went straight on, hitting the tyre wall at the end of turn five. The Brit didn’t have major damage and was able to get into the race again, but by the end of lap 24 he was down into seventh place.
Defending champion Nelson Piquet Jr. in the NEXTEV TCR machine hit the pit lane exit wall exiting turn two, after he went over the chicane bump. With his front wing under the car, the safety car was deployed on lap 35. Original pole sitter Da Costa was shown to be out of his car in the pit lane, although the reason why he retired wasn’t obvious.
The safety car came in on lap 38, and the restart happened without any drama. While no more positions changes occurred between then and the end of the race, the top three of di Grassi, Stephane Sarrazin, and Abt were close. With the Long Beach ePrix win, di Grassi passes Buemi to lead the championship by one point going into the Paris ePrix later in the month.
Abt made the result a 1-3 for the Abt Schaeffler team after keeping fairly quiet throughout the race. The same can be said for Sarrazin in the Venturi car, who will be very happy with his performance. The two Mahindra drivers, Nick Heidfeld and Bruno Senna, finished fourth and fifth respectively, while the two Dragon Racing cars finished behind them in sixth and seventh.
